Heritage Centre
Welcome to the Heritage Centre of The College of Nursing and its earlier organisation, The NSW College of Nursing. The heritage collection is an integral part of the College's cultural heritage and unique identity. The collection has significant links to other forms of evidence of past & present nursing and healthcare activity. Drawing on all available forms of evidence, we are able to develop a much richer understanding of our own heritage.
The collection of material began when the College was established in January 1949 although the archive collection was not formally established until 1985 with the stated purpose of maintaining a historical record of both the College's work and of nursing in Australia. Since that time the collections have been expanded to include the records of some notable nurses as well as nursing organisations with whom the College has been associated. In addition there is a collection of assorted nursing ephemera and historical artefacts. The Captain Cook Bicentennial doll collection displays the uniforms worn by nurses in various hospitals covering the period from the arrival of the Sisters of Charity in 1838 and Lucy Osburn in 1868 through until the 1970’s.
The centre holds a large collection of badges from nurse training schools, universities, nursing organisations and many of the nursing specialty group badges. This collection has been digitised and may be viewed by clicking on the link below. The volunteers are currently working on digitising the photographic collection, a somewhat daunting task as many of the photographs are not identified.
Many Australians and international publications relating to nursing, research findings, College publications and monographs, historical texts and printed material are also held in the heritage centre and with the historical collection held in the College library together represent a major research resource, which may be accessed by bona fide researchers. Limited assistance is available for family history enquries using the ATNA Registers 1900-1924 and other material held.
